immediate, spontaneus and total

Desikachar translation of sutra 3.54:
"Such clarity is not exclusive of any object, any particular situation or any moment. It is not the result of sequential logic. It is immediate, spontaneous and total."

We gain it by samyama on time and sequencing or as Iyengar writes about sacred knowledge, in the translation "the yogi... grasps instantly, clearly and wholly, the aims of all objects without going into the sequence of time or change".
I can relate to the sutra, since any experience I've had - however short - of a truth or an insight that makes sense in all ways possible, have been immediate, not growing. Suddenly it just makes sense. For example the realization that energy is not just another word for a "mood", or how “fresh or tired” we are. Maybe; I have been moving towards a new experience with what “energy” means, by showing up in classes and doing what was told. But !! suddenly a new sensation was there, that had nothing to do with “mood” or “power-level” in the muscles. It was: immediate, spontaneous and total.

Sometimes when I work the sutras this way, my ego wants me to be more humble :-) and suddenly I'm sooo new and soo small that I have nothing to contribute with. I guess, just like a micro macro cosmos, there are micro and macro connections to the sutras. Today, it is more important to share what I can relate to and have experience with, rather than be humble and connect to "I know oh soo little". Some days it is the opposite.

Sutra 3.55
What is freedom?
"Freedom is when the mind has complete identity with the perceiver." (D translation)
Desikachar explains; "The mind has no colour or features of its own."

This is where I have an experience of freedom in yoga asana practice these days:
1. after chest openers (ardha kapotasana on chair or elevated chest on block in supta bada konasana).
2 after class in savasana.
3 singing mantra in Italy :-) still mantra with my students resonates on the same experience.

These are areas in life I experience freedom this week:
1. When I find the humor angle (on me), I got frustrated at work, because of to much to do,, so I walked away of an situation very upset, and suddenly I could see myself behaving like a martyr, it just became completely funny and I could laugh and I was free - without the situation changed the least..
2. When a problem looses its importance (unsolved or solved). I have a relation that I choses to stay in because of my kids, it's a challenging one, but when I find that its not important what they communicate to me - I'm free, not because they communicated better or more respectful/lovingly.
3. I experience freedom with my partner. Freedom to be me and to chose to interact, do stuff together or not do stuff together. And more new - I experience freedom the reversed way to. I'm free from having anything to do with weather he wants to be alone or together. Nice!
My experience is, that if I feel it in one place in my life - it will spread!

Iyengar writes: "kaivalya [freedom] the indivisible state of existence" this is particularly interesting for me. I've studied the concepts of "sens" contra "reason" or in Scandinavian languages: fornuft - kontra- forstand. Both of the concepts has to do with our ability to understand, grasp or seeing clearly. But reason or "forstand" is in history of philosophy, understood as the power to analyze by dividing in to parts to put together in sense-making patterns. However sense or "fornuft" (slægt med fornemme) has to do with making whole, uniting, recognizing, relating and connecting. For me this just makes sense that Patanjali states that freedom is indivisible and still a sacred knowledge. One we get to know using another part of us than our analytical thinker. I might be slightly of track for the rest of you, but for me this is right on spot :-)

This is the last sutra in pada 3, now we move to pada 4: "Kaivalya Pada" where, as Iyengar writes; Patanjali takes us to the subtlest sheath, the soul

Thank you for reading and thank you for letting me share!
Namaste
jenni